Google Releases Stats On Country Info & Takedown Requests; Leaves Us Wanting More

from the transparency-is-good dept

Tue, Apr 20th 2010 6:00pm — Mike Masnick

Google's getting some attention for its decision to launch a tool highlighting the information requests made by various governments to Google, either to gather information or to take down certain content. According to Google, this is a part of its efforts to try to keep the internet more open, as seen by its decision to leave China and its pushing back on Australia's attempts at censorship. Of course, many will claim that this is just self-serving on Google's part, since it's better off with a more open internet -- but that doesn't mean the initiative is a bad idea.

Still, it's not clear really how much there is to learn from this tool. Basically, we see that Brazil requests a lot of information and takedowns -- and the US requests an awful lot of info. And... well.. then we're left wondering. The tool does breakdown the nature of the removal requests, but not in very much detail. And it doesn't do that for the data requests. So, really, all this tool does is leave us wondering what exactly is being requested and/or taken down. Perhaps that's the point of the tool: to get people to ask more questions, but it seems like Google could have done a bit more to highlight that kind of information as well.

Separately, in its op-ed about the new program, Google also suggests that the best tool for encouraging a decrease in repressive governments is through better free trade agreements. If only that were the case. Real free trade agreements can increase openness tremendously, but lately the sorts of "free trade agreements" we've seen have been things like ACTA -- which is not at all about openness, and very much about using the same repressive tools used by China to try to block forms of communication.

It's good that Google is encouraging some discussion on this topic, and perhaps this is the point of the limited tool, but looking through it seems to simply open up a lot more questions than it answers.

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Filed Under: data, governments, information requests, maps
Companies: google

18 Comments

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Anonymous Coward, 20 Apr 2010 @ 7:35pm

two posts in the same day? the masnick makes a shocking return to techdirt. too bad your are buying into google trying to stack the deck for political advancement.
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not the AC, 20 Apr 2010 @ 8:10pm

Same silly V from the AC ?
Of course, what else did anyone expect.
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BearGriz72 (profile), 20 Apr 2010 @ 8:16pm

Re:
Alert: Tinfoil Hats Required...
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Chargone (profile), 20 Apr 2010 @ 9:16pm

Re:
because having someone who's interest conincide with one's own 'stacking the deck' is oh so much worse than the usual run of political shenanigans.

...

yeah, that was sarcasm.
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Anonymous Coward, 20 Apr 2010 @ 10:16pm

Re:
TAM, are you off your meds again?
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R, 20 Apr 2010 @ 10:55pm

Free Trade Agreement
The reason has such poor copyright law is because of the US Free Trade Agreement - I'm not holding my breath
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Richard (profile), 20 Apr 2010 @ 11:40pm

Maybe Google are afraid of being accused of generating your favourite "Streisand effect" by pointing out what content is being taken down and by who.
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The Groove Tiger (profile), 21 Apr 2010 @ 1:47am

Re:
again, the tam shows his true colors by promoting the raporism of underage unicorns.
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Anonymous Coward, 21 Apr 2010 @ 6:16am

Re: Re:
"Hi Mike"

Ha! Beat you to it! Now go back to bed troll.
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Marcus Carab (profile), 21 Apr 2010 @ 4:20pm

If I recall correctly, the tool also doesn't count the number of things requested, only the number of requests - and that one request could be for a single takedown or piece of information, or for a hundred of them. If that's true then these statistics would be massively skewed by simple bureaucratic nuances: an office in one government might have a system where they send a bunch of separate requests while the same office in another government bundles them.
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Anonymous Coward, 26 Apr 2010 @ 12:39am

It's good that Google is encouraging some discussion on this topic, and perhaps this is the point of the limited tool, but looking through it seems to simply open up a lot more questions than it answers.

Much like your typical LOST episode.
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girl games, 4 May 2010 @ 1:34am

new google tool
well, it is better than nothing, we will always want more tools with more abilities, but that what Google decided to provide in that version.
Maybe in the next version they will provide more.
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Ben 10 games, 6 May 2010 @ 11:53am

google tool
Not bad but it could be better i am sure in the next version they will provide more then that
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Coach Hire, 24 Jul 2010 @ 11:58pm

Its correct
Even while they are newcomers to Washington, they have apparently learned the lessons of the K Street Project -- the Republican effort to force businesses to hire only Republican lobbyists and to make donations to GOP candidates and committees, and to fill the major lobbying firms with Republican staffers from Capitol Hill.
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dora games, 30 Nov 2010 @ 6:06pm

answer
The point of the tool is to get people to ask more questions, but it seems like Google could have done a bit more to highlight that kind of information and gave more answers .
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Ms Pacman, 19 Jun 2011 @ 3:49am

No sense
I don't see any sense in this tool?!
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Zubair Khan, 3 Mar 2015 @ 12:09am

Great Tool
It is great tool Google always care their user. And always gives the some thing different and interesting.
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